Unprecedented drop in young people under justice supervision

Updated
April 17, 2014 20:00:00

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says there has been an unprecedented drop in the number of young people under youth justice supervision. In its annual Youth Justice in Australia report, the institute has revealed a 14 per cent decline in the number of 10 to 17 year olds on an average day in the justice system. But Indigenous young people continue to be over-represented.

MARK COLVIN: The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says there's been an unprecedented drop in the number of young people in the justice system over the past two years.

The institute reports a 14 per cent drop in the number of 10 to 17 year olds under supervision or in detention.

But the report released today reveals a much smaller decline in the number of Indigenous children in the system.

Thomas Oriti reports.

THOMAS ORITI: The institute releases a Youth Justice in Australia report each year. But there's never been a drop in numbers like this over such a short period of time.

TIM BEARD: Compared to two years ago, we've had about 1,000 fewer young people on an average day in the youth justice system.

THOMAS ORITI: Tim Beard is the head of the institute's Child Welfare and Prisoner Health Unit.

TIM BEARD: Previous to the two years it's been quite a stable trend, and we've seen probably somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 young people in the system over that period. But over the last two years we've seen a decline from about 7,300 to 6,300, so it is certainly a significant trend.

THOMAS ORITI: The Australian Institute of Criminology says it's unprecedented.

Matthew Willis is from the Institute's Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Responses division.

MATTHEW WILLIS: It's a very significant drop, and it's probably on a scale that we haven't seen before, and it's certainly a very, very positive sign.

I think a large part of it comes from our well known understanding that once young people get into the juvenile justice system, it's very hard to get them out of that again, and people who become entrenched in the system can remain in there and progress, if you like, through to the adult criminal justice system.

THOMAS ORITI: He says working from that knowledge juvenile justice agencies, police and courts across Australia are trying to keep children out of the system. And they're getting results.

MATTHEW WILLIS: Early intervention programs, diversion programs, such as the use of cautioning of young people, rather than formally referring them through the system.

THOMAS ORITI: The vast majority of children in the justice system are subject to community service orders or probation. At the more extreme end of the spectrum, 15 per cent are placed into detention facilities.

Four out of five are male, but there's been a particular decline in the number of young boys in the system. The rate of girls under supervision has remained stable.

Tim Beard, from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, is optimistic the numbers will continue to drop across the board.

TIM BEARD: There is a strong presence of a diversionary process happening across the entire country.

THOMAS ORITI: But why has there been such a rapid decline in the past two years?

Matthew Willis from the Institute of Criminology points to several factors.

MATTHEW WILLIS: I would say it would be a combination of all those different measures that are being put in place, together with a continuing drop over time in a range of offences and the type of offences that people tend to be engaged in. They're much more likely to be engaged in property offences, vandalism-type offences.

THOMAS ORITI: The Federal Opposition has seized on another key finding in the report. Indigenous young people are now 17 times more likely than non-Indigenous young people to be under supervision; that's up from 15 several years ago.

SHAYNE NEUMANN: We've got a major problem, a national shame, a national disgrace, and a national tragedy. It's getting worse in this area.

THOMAS ORITI: There has been a 5 per cent drop in the number of Indigenous children over the last five years in the justice system. So why are you saying it's getting worse?

SHAYNE NEUMANN: Well we've got a situation with relation to the number of young women particularly involved in this space. We've got a levelling out of young men, but actually an increase in young women across the board.

THOMAS ORITI: The office of the Indigenous Affairs Minister, Senator Nigel Scullion, did not return PM's calls, but Tim Beard is warning people not to jump to conclusions.

TIM BEARD: That's still a very stark statistic. But what we've seen over the last couple of years is that both groups have actually fallen in terms of the numbers and rates coming into the system.

THOMAS ORITI: Shayne Neumann says he's not convinced enough is being done to address the problem.

SHAYNE NEUMANN: It's not the time now for us to be cutting back legal aid funding. It's not the time now to be cutting funding to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service. We've seeing this from Coalition and conservative governments around the country, particularly in the Northern Territory, Queensland, and Tony Abbott is replicating this.